The goals for this module are to be able to

1. explain how art production is shaped by the artists' experiences,

Moreover, to achieve these goals, several activities were done by the class.

We started the module by watching two TED talks. The first one is Elizabeth Gilbert's "Your
Elusive Creative Genius" which talks about how pressure and high expectations kill off artists
and geniuses. She discussed how society expects creative people to outperform themselves
every time and so, those people are pressurized to continue to deliver something equally good
or better because if not, then he/she is ruined. Elizabeth also mentioned the ancient Greeks
who believe that creativity came to people from spirits called "daemons" or "genius" for the
Romans. This idea insulated the artist from criticism and narcissism since the work was not
theirs and they could take neither all the credit nor blame. Then came the Renaissance, and
now people are said "to be the genius" rather than "having the genius." People became the
center of the universe. The world no longer has space for mythical creatures and beings.
Elizabeth says this was a colossal error and has put massive pressure on the artists that caused
the depression to many of them.

The second is Dustin Yellin's "A Journey Through the Mind of an Artist." He brings up the idea
that people are all in the same box. The problem across humanity is that some people tend to
separate themselves. Hence, he emphasizes that for people to survive, everyone should be
working together outside of the borders and limitations that have been set to create a world
that everyone can live in.

The next activity is the Think-Pair-Share discussions on "Memory, Creation, and Writing" by Toni
Morrison. Morrison explains the motivations and insights behind the creative process of
writing, which she has explored for forty years. The first important point she explains is that
within any piece of creative writing, the writer must rely on his/her memory to stimulate
his/her imagination. Morrison states that within this process of recalling an event, what is
important is the subjective emotional identification of the writer; factual information is
secondary and often not even desired. Morrison also stated that "the process by which the
recollections of these pieces coalesce into a part (and knowing the difference between a piece
and a part) is creation." Thus, it is necessary for her that the writer collects fragments of his/her
memory about a given event. She also claims that within this context, the writer must examine
the specific milieu in which the scene takes place and what feelings and impressions it evokes.
She defines the term memory as being "the deliberate act of remembering [which] is a form of
willed creation."

The third activity is the group concept map on the Ontology of Art by Thomasson. We need to
differentiate the four stands on the ontological status of art - Collingwood's, Sartre's,
Wollheim's, and Currie's and then relate these stands with the works of Elizabeth Gilbert and
Toni Morrison, and Ed Castrillo and Dustin Yellin. Our group decided to show the difference
between the four stands using our version of the concept map. We illustrated it by outlining a
human's head wherein the four personalities (Collingwood, Sartre, Wollheim, and Currie) are
written on the part of the brain since the process of creating art, such as imagination, occurs in
the mind of a person. On the other hand, the works of Gilbert and Morrison are written on the
mouth part of the head because literature and sculpture are the actual products of one's
creative mind. We only wrote the key phrases that show the differences between the four
stands. For Collingwood, we focused on his statement that works of art are created by the
artist's total imaginative experience and that for him, the work of art is not a physical object or
finished artifact, but the conscious imaginative activity through which creative expression takes
place. Secondly, Sartre argues that works of art are never real objects; thus, they are imaginary
or unreal non-physical objects.

On the other hand, Wollheim claims that works of art are "types" and their embodiments
"tokens." Lastly, Currie defends that all works of art are abstract types. He also has his "action-
type hypothesis" which states that works of art can never be perceived at all by observers, but
can at best be reconstructed.

In this module, we were also able to learn about different artists and their artworks. One of
them is Diego Velasquez, who was a 17th-century Spanish painter who produced "Las
Meninas." Famed for his realistic style and the vital similarities of his subjects, he used free,
efficient brushstrokes to conjure heavily atmospheric scenes pierced by dazzling color and
ornamentation. Another one is Jose Joya, who was a Filipino painter best known for his abstract
expressionist works which utilized a variety of techniques, including controlled drips, impasto
strokes, and transparent layering.

The final requirement for this module is a reflection paper wherein we should be able to
answer the questions given to us. The first question was about our earliest recollections of art-
making, so I talked about the concept of art for me as a child. I recalled how I drew a nipa hut, a
plain, the sun between two mountains, and the child-version birds. I enjoyed working with
colors and layering those colors for different effects because for me, back then, anything
colorful is beautiful. I cannot fully recall everything about my childhood; that's why I agree with
what Toni Morrison said about memory- it is a "form of willed creation." I also find myself
subscribing to Collingwood's idea of art. Because for me, all individuals are artistic.

Artistic because everyone has a creative mind. Like Collingwood's stand, I also agree that
experiencing a work of art requires a "total imaginative experience." Art is imaginary, and it
means that the thing only exists as notions within the artist. A thing is considered real when it
exists in the real world. The understanding of imaginary and real has the same meaning as their
ordinary usage. One can say the unreal contains the form of a thing. It becomes real when the
matter is imposed on the form. Also, that creation occurs in the imagination. At this point, the
art exists, but it is up to the artist to find physical expression if they choose to share it with
others.

Furthermore, I also agree that we tend to think that works of art are real physical things
existing in this world. However, this is not accurate as "The work of art proper is something not
seen or heard, but something imagined." (Collingwood, 2013) As described earlier, art comes
into existence in the artist's mind through the act of creation. Works of art we perceive as real
are merely physical representations used to communicate the artist's thoughts. Lastly, if I were
also to create an artwork today, I would want to compose a song about the kind of living (or
world) that we never had. We are all aware that as years go by, the system of things in this
world only gets worse. Older people and some parents say that they are hopeful but at the
same time worried about the kind of life that the children of the future generation will get. Less
fortunate people are mostly hopeless, and I think, no innocent face in this world deserves to
feel downhearted for having such a bad life. So, if I were to make art, I would like it to be
something that would have a positive vibe or an "encouraging or comforting effect" for the
people who would be listening. Making them remember or feel the earthly Paradise that we
hope to have with our loved ones. This work of art will be successful through imagination:
imagining the things that I look forward to and which people today don't experience.